Thursday, April 11, 2013

Obama Budget Proposal Interactive Graphic

One word of warning before you look. The graphic compares Obama’s 2014 budget proposal to other proposals (none of which account for what might go wrong), and to actual past budgets (that already embody all the stuff that can and did go wrong).

Anyway, it shows that in many ways, Obama’s budget is in line with other budgets.

Relative to the economy, it’s a bit smaller than this year’s budget.

It’s a big improvement over Obama’s past budgets, both in overall size and deficit (which isn’t hard if you project that we won’t have another Great Recession).

It’s a little more generous than Senate Democrats want, but tighter than the Progressive Caucus would like.

It’s a bit bigger than the budgets proposed by Republicans in Congress.

It’s about the same size as Bush’s budgets.

It’s quite a bit fatter than Clinton’s budgets.

The source article is entitled "Obama Budget Opens Rift for Democrats on Social Benefits", and it appeared in the April 10 issue of The New York Times.